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☆ Who is Matthew Kacsmaryk, the Trump-appointed Texas judge who could ban abortion pills?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Matthew Kacsmaryk is a Texas federal judge who was nominated by Donald Trump in 2017. Kacsmaryk graduated from Abilene Christian University in 1999 and received his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 2003. The Post reported that it was during law school when Kacsmaryk focused on abortion rights. Kacsmaryk also served as the executive editor of the Texas Review of Law & Politics and received two Dean's Achievement Awards, according to the questionnaire. During his undergraduate years, studying political science, Kacsmaryk was outspoken about his conservative views and stances on abortion.

☆ Biden’s test: Sustaining unity as Ukraine war enters second year
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

One year ago, President Joe Biden was bracing for the worst as Russia massed troops in preparation to invade Ukraine. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was offered help getting out of his country if he wanted it. Now, as Biden prepares to travel to Poland to mark the anniversary of the war, he faces a legacy-defining moment. In Poland, Biden is set to meet with allies to reassure them of the U.S. commitment to the region and to helping Ukraine "as long as it takes." From the beginning of his administration, Biden has argued the world is at a crucial moment pitting autocracies against democracies.

☆ ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ Review: Where More Is Less
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Anyone who has been to a comic-book movie lately can tell you that should any interlude dare to linger more than about 37 seconds in a situation where not much is taking place except people talking, the theater will start twinkling like a galaxy as viewers take out their phones to check their messages. To forestall such fidgeting, superhero sagas grow increasingly desperate not to let any period appreciably longer than a Toyota commercial elapse without a frenzied chase, thunderous battle, jolly musical interlude, display of things not seen on this earth, or instance of the universe being turned inside out. The latest hectic example, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” inaugurates Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is as financially hale as it is creatively tired. Thanks to a few sweet father-daughter moments and a relatively direct plot, this entry is a notch better than some even-more-febrile recent efforts such as “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and “Thor: Love and Thunder.” But overall it’s another lackluster blockbuster. It does contain one genuinely awe-inspiring visual spectacle (the face of Paul Rudd , the only American man who looks nearly as good now as he did during the Clinton administration) and one truly scary concept (teen activist daughters bent on achieving universal social justice when you wish they’d just do their homework).

☆ Who is Jared Bernstein, new chief White House economist?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Americans remain unimpressed by Biden's economic performance, with prices of many basic goods and mortgage rates high. Bernstein, who played the double bass in jazz bands and worked as a social worker in New York City, has long been a voice for progressive economic policy. He served in the Labor Department under former President Bill Clinton and then as Biden's chief economist when he was vice president. At the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, he wrote and testified to Congress extensively on the shrinking U.S. middle class, a bedrock Biden theme. U.S. business groups worry that Bernstein's labor ties and anti-free trade stance could hamper efforts to bolster trade ties with other countries.

Around 8.4 million of the 37 million people in the United States with diabetes use insulin, according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA). They tried, and failed, to extend the benefit to everyone with health insurance when they were voting on the IRA. Without Congressional approval, the Biden administration cannot impose the cap on private insurance plans and is unlikely able to create a subsidy for the uninsured, experts said. Some Medicaid plans for low-income individuals and private insurance plans also cap the monthly cost of insulin at $35. It is unclear if his proposal would include those without health insurance, who often have to pay the full price for the life-sustaining drug.

☆ House Republican heavyweights are tripping over each other to launch hearings on Biden's handling of the border
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Bryan Metzger | Warren Rojas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

House Republicans are fighting to be the first to bash Biden at border security-related hearings. Judiciary is rushing to hold a meeting next week, with Oversight scheduled to follow a week later. Republicans will hold the Biden Administration accountable for this ongoing humanitarian, national security, and public health crisis that has turned every town into a border town." Comer invited four border patrol agents to the Oversight hearing and sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas requesting documents on various border-related programs. Border security and immigration continue to be an area of key concern for Republicans in particular.

☆ Top government ethics officer was late disclosing his personal finances on multiple occasions
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The attorney, Office of Government Ethics General Counsel David Apol, missed deadlines to report at least 12 different bond transactions since 2015. Improperly reporting purchases and sales of bonds or stocks is a violation of the 2012 Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or STOCK Act. Officials are only required to report transactions in broad ranges. Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia has been one of the lead proponents in Congress of reforming the STOCK Act. Congress this year discussed changes to the STOCK Act and the US House even held a hearing following the publication of "Conflicted Congress."

It’s quite remarkable.”In his first five-year term on the Standing Committee, Wang ran the party's secretariat, an organ responsible for day-to-day affairs. In Xi's third leadership term, Wang is on track to be in charge of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body. "All the major slogans, from Jiang Zemin to Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping, seem to have come from Wang Huning," Lam said. 'AMERICA VS. AMERICA'Where most Standing Committee members have experience such as running a major city or province, Wang is an academic. During 1989's pro-democracy student protests, Wang told Xia not to stand with the students, a warning Xia did not heed.

In recent years, researchers have looked for supplements, in particular to data like JOLTS, to provide more nuance about job market dynamics. "When JOLTS came along it was stepping into a data void that it has done a good job of filling. An expanded JOLTS survey may get directly at that and other issues in the future, said Paul R. Calhoun Jr., who was involved with developing the survey in the 1990s and is its current manager. "You got all these job openings," Calhoun said. "We had the unemployment rate, so we knew how many people there are who are looking for work and don't have a job.

☆ Trump's day of reckoning is overdue. Garland's special counsel move adds to the delay.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Michael Conway | Michael Conway Was Counsel For The House Judiciary Committee In The Impeachment Inquiry Of President Richard Nixon In In That Role | He Assisted In Drafting The Committee'S Final Report To The House In Support Of The Three Articles Of Impeachment Adopted The Committee. Conway Is A Graduate Of Yale Law School | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

Attorney General Merrick Garland’s decision to appoint a special counsel to investigate former President Donald Trump is a miscalculation, with the main problem being timing. Despite assurances from Garland that a special counsel will not bog down the investigation, reality suggests otherwise. Not to mention that past practice demonstrates that the Justice Department has regularly shown that anyone can be held accountable — without resorting to a special counsel. No special counsel was used. I believe Trump’s day of reckoning is long overdue, and Garland’s overly cautious decision to appoint a special counsel may continue postponing that day.

The law allows the government to choose 10 drugs to negotiate from among the 50 costliest drugs for Medicare. Even so, Republicans will "chip away" at the drug price negotiation provision and its implementation, said Joel White, founder and president of Horizon Government Affairs. Biden is unlikely to weaken his signature domestic achievement, said Larry Levitt, Executive Vice President for Health Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Even Republican support for the drug pricing provision is not guaranteed because it is popular with voters across the political spectrum, he said. "All Republicans voted against drug price negotiation, but they have to tread carefully in any effort to weaken it."

☆ US Secret Service protection would follow Donald Trump to the slammer if he ever ended up there, former agents say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Robin Bravender | Dave Levinthal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

"If Donald Trump gets sent to prison, what's the role of the Secret Service in that case?" Federal law entitles Trump and all other ex-presidents to Secret Service protections for life — although it didn't always. "Geez, the fact that we're thinking about him going to jail kind of scares me," said the former Secret Service official. While former presidents are entitled to Secret Service protection, they can opt to decline it — just as Nixon did after leaving office. They did so under the Clinton administration, when a law was passed that would afford ex-presidents 10 years of Secret Service security, rather than lifetime protections.

☆ They were on the run from the Taliban, abandoned by their US allies — until a Wall Street banker decided to smuggle them out of Afghanistan
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Nina Burleigh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

His daughter worked for the US-backed government in Kabul, prosecuting the Taliban and their followers for acts of violence against women. The war in Afghanistan effectively began on 9/11, with the attacks on Wall Street and the Pentagon. Last summer, when the Taliban overran Kabul, Calbos was in Greece visiting his father. "I see kind of a mirror image to mine in his history and his family," Calbos says. With the clock ticking on the family's temporary visas, Calbos scrambled to arrange a flight out of Pakistan.

☆ Rep. Mike Garcia faces off against Democrat Christy Smith in California's 27th Congressional District election
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Hanna Kang | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Rep. Mike Garcia is running against Democrat Christy Smith in California's 27th Congressional District. California's 27th Congressional District candidatesGarcia is a member of the House Committee on Appropriations. The top-two finishers, Garcia and Smith, went on to a runoff, in which Garcia emerged victorious. Voting history for California's 27th Congressional DistrictCalifornia's 27th Congressional District encompasses sections of northern Los Angeles County and the San Fernando and Antelope Valleys, including the city of Santa Clarita, known for Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park. Of this spending, most has come from two Republican sources: the National Republican Congressional Committee and pro-Garcia super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund.

Latinos were 31 percent of the state’s high school graduates that year. But at 31%, the six-year graduation rate for MSU’s Latino students lags far behind CU Boulder, where it was 63 %. On the CU Boulder campus stands a 4-foot-7 memorial to “Los Seis,” six activists, including CU Boulder students, who were killed in two off-campus car bombings in 1974; the killings were never solved. Seventy-two percent, 510, of the middle and high school students enrolled in the program for 2020-21 were Latino. Vela and three other CU Boulder students who spoke with NBC News first learned about the campus through the Aquetza program.

☆ Here's why U.S. fiscal policy is undermining the Fed's aggressive efforts to fight inflation
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Central bank tightening — under the umbrella of monetary policy — is only one side of the equation when it comes to managing inflation. The other is fiscal policy, which is controlled by lawmakers in Congress. Coordinated fiscal- and monetary policy can have a compounding effect in stamping out inflation. But given that U.S. fiscal policy is not acting in concert with monetary policy, the Fed's efforts to bring down inflation have become all the more complicated. In the years since the 2007-2009 global financial crisis, expansionary fiscal policy — and monetary policy for that matter — has not posed much of a problem due to overall low inflation.

☆ FDA acknowledges delays in response to baby formula shortage
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration acknowledged Tuesday that its response to the U.S. infant formula shortage was slowed by delays in processing a whistleblower complaint and test samples from the nation’s largest formula factory. It comes nearly eight months after the FDA shuttered Abbott’s Michigan plant due to safety concerns, quickly slashing domestic production within the highly concentrated formula industry. The FDA also faced challenges ramping up its testing capacity for cronobacter, a rare but potentially deadly bacteria repeatedly linked to outbreaks in baby formula. U.S. inventories of baby formula have been improving, hitting in-stock rates above 80% last week, according to IRI, a market research firm. That review is being led by former FDA commissioner Dr. Jane Henney, who led the agency during the final years of the Clinton administration.

☆ Tech leaders dish on how asinine it is to try to describe their companies, products, and worth to Congress
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Hanna Kang | Kayla Gallagher | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +24 min

Tech companies are worried an aging Congress can't meet or even understand their demands. Younger members of Congress are beginning to take the lead in conversations on tech issues. Hawley said younger members are generally more critical of big tech. However, he added, new technologies are more widely used by younger people, and users tend to understand technology better. Meanwhile, major tech companies continue to ramp up their federal lobbying spending, together spending more in 2021 than in any other year in history.

☆ Elton John set to perform at the White House on Friday
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Trevor Hunnicutt | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Elton John performs as he returns to complete his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour since it was postponed due to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions in 2020, in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. January 19, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan BachmanWASHINGTON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden will host British rocker Elton John for a performance on Friday at the White House, according to a press release. The "Tiny Dancer" and "Crocodile Rock" hit maker, 75, will headline an event where Biden and First Lady Jill Biden are also set to speak, the White House said on Tuesday. John previously performed at the White House during the Clinton administration in 1998. White House workers were setting up staging on Tuesday while cooks, technicians and other professionals got tests for COVID-19 in preparation for the event.

☆ Why Joe Biden thinks he's never too old to be your president
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-13 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +28 min

As the oldest sitting president, he's raising concerns about how long he can continue governing. Republicans — including Trump — have gleefully seized on Biden's verbal misadventures, such as when he called his vice president "President Harris." President Joe Biden drives the Ford's new all-electric F-150 Lightning in Dearborn, Michigan. Ruggerio described the idea that Joe Biden is diminished or can't remember things as "bull crap." Cox said that while he thinks Biden is "still Joe" and still capable, he worries that Biden's age is a problem.

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